Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sew you think you can dance, dance, dance

Finally got around to organizing pictures of some stuff I've been working on. Phew! I've grown to love sewing more and more, and recently the sewing machine has become a permanent tenant on the dressing table. I told her I'd waive her rent if she just keeps sewing. So far I haven't collected rent. Yes I was talking about the machine.

Sooooooo anyway! My first adventure with jersey fabric is this braided green tank top. I haven't worked with jersey fabric before, so I was worried about the hemming of the edges... so I braided strips of the fabric and hand-sewn them onto the edges.

You can find jersey fabric in a variety of colours at Kamdar SS2, and when it's on sale you can get it for like RM6+ per metre. It's pretty exciting to find these stretchy fabric, and I wished they'd carry knitted and ribbed stretch fabric as well! Here's a close-up on the braids that took me forever to sew them on:


Next is a refashion project. I found this skirt at Amcorp Mall's weekend flea market for RM7.50 (it was purchased with another skirt at a RM15 for 2 price). The seller is a really lovely lady that sells a lot of skirts which are somewhat vintage stocks from Japan. I was drawn to this skirt because of the pastel floral prints-- a colour palette of pale pink and greys, something we've been seriously considering as our wedding dinner colour theme. As pretty as the print was, the skirt was too long and dowdy for me to pull off.

So, chop chop chop and here we are! A high-waisted skirt that goes perfect with my pale pink / pale yellow tanks and cardi!

Ooo! And the most exciting part was making these pockets! It's my first time making pockets other than the hidden kind, and they have a pale yellow lining. Yes I have a thing for pastels sometimes.


And lastly, here's something I just completed yesterday, also another refashion project. This "hospital gown" (as the husband calls it) was found in Amcorp Mall's flea market as well, for a bargain of RM5. The seller is a nice lady too (everyone in Amcorp seems nice in my little eyes hehe), and she carries a number of vintage items as well. If you like buying vintage items, you should make a trip to Amcorp Mall during the weekends! This hospital gown could've easily been sold online for around RM25 on the blogshops. So anyway, here's the before photo. Naise.

A lot of snips and a lot of worrying later, here's the reformed hospital gown:

It's no lie that vintage fabrics are actually made better than most of the fabrics we see nowadays. This hospital gown (maybe I should stop calling it that) is a really gorgeous shade of magenta, and wasn't faded at all. But, the fabric was a lil "furry" on the outside, so I used the insides out instead. No biggie, since the prints were still nice on the inside.


And the dress has a V-back! Yay! When I saw Zooey Deschanel's V-back dress in 500 Days of Summer (the scene where she's walking in the bus), I knew I really one of my own. 



So yeahhh. That's about it. I'm really sleepy now, the flu pill is working its magic... zzzzzz

2 comments:

Ayu said...

GOOD JOB!!! I LOVE IT!!!

u should really start doing patterns. it's such a waste of talent otherwise. in case you haven't checked it out, go to www.sewingpatterns.com and buy them off your credit card, print them, assemble, cut, trace, sew the fabrics. DAMN FUN WEIIII!!!

i have bought patterns and gotten them shipped off from US la but the flimsy papers are real pain man. pastu ada yang datang dah terkoyak la apa benda. annoying! if you print, you can reprint again. and it's cheaper. and it's yours forever unlike the posted patterns.

ching, i am serious. please please please start on sewing patterns. i just can't wait to see the results!!!!

xoxo,
ayu

chiiiiing said...

YES MA'AM!! hehhehehehe okok i will start on the patterns thingy, i do have a good mind to start working with patterns.. i just really suck at measurements.. or i think i do, at least.. Hehhehehehhehehehe.. i tried using a pattern from burdastyle, but then i got so EXHAUSTED after putting them together and taping and cutting them! i know, i'm such a lazybum right?? HAHAHAHA T_T"

but yes... patterns.. i must do it!